Legislative Goals for 2015

If you’re like me and you stopped using marijuana 24 years ago (I’ll admit not very people are like me), then you’d probably like to see some progress being made on reforming the image and reputation of marijuana (slandered and vilified in a smear campaign best known as “Reefer Madness”) in Iowa. And, if you’re like me, you saw the issue of cannabis extract getting serious attention from legislators across the county this year. Eleven states, including Iowa, enacted cannabis extract laws this year. So, here’s a list of stuff I’d like to see in 2015.

An absolute must in 2015 is reclassifying marijuana in Iowa. Classifying marijuana as a plant with no medical value makes no sense now that Iowa recognizes the medical value this plant has. The Iowa Board of Pharmacy recommended reclassifying marijuana in 2010 and is going to do it again toward the end of this year in November of 2014. A legislative study committee of ten legislators voted nine to one to recommend reclassification of marijuana in September of 2014. This is the bottom line and it’s essential that marijuana is reclassified here in Iowa in 2015.

Another recommendation from the legislative study committee is cultivating the marijuana for the cannabis extract here in Iowa. Six of the ten legislators on the study committee voted to grow the cannabis in Iowa and the governor said he is open to it. Federal law was actually amended earlier this year to allow states to cultivate industrial hemp and there’s probably a way to make medical extracts from it. We need to start this research here in Iowa.

Finally, a lot of folks would like to expand the list of conditions that cannabis extract can be used to treat.

If we could accomplish any or all of these goals in 2015, we would be well on the way to reforming the image and reputation of marijuana in Iowa as good for something instead of good for nothing.